After Mueller Mishap, Economy Roars Back to Life

It felt as though we’ve been held hostage these last 22+ months.

With Robert Mueller sniffing away in the dark corners of the Washington Swamp, it felt inevitable that some horrid creature would be ushered forth; something that would shake the foundation of our democracy to its core.

Instead, we’ve been handed a murky, muddy, vague 400-odd pages of investigation with no clear conclusion.  The President is running a victory lap as the democrats scream for heads to roll.  It’s confusing and more than a bit melodramatic.

For many, the fact that the Mueller report is finished and public, and that it arrived with no surprise indictments, is enough to begin breathing a sigh of relief.  This includes stock market speculators as well.

The worries that hung ominously over the U.S. economy early this year appear to have lifted. And that sunnier picture has helped bolster confidence in the stock market — driving the benchmark S&P 500 index to another record high Friday.

The latest dose of encouragement came in a report Friday that the U.S. economy grew much faster than expected in the January-March quarter, suggesting that the nearly decade-long expansion still has a ways to go.

Other recent signs have fed a growing view among many analysts that the economy faces little risk of slipping into a recession anytime soon as some had feared when the year began. Retail sales jumped in March. And with hiring solid and wages rising at a decent pace, consumer spending will likely strengthen in the coming months.

This is all good news for the nation, as well as for President Trump, whose latest tiff with the liberals seems to have some staying power.